The earth has buried many such wrecks in its bosom. But not alone
below, but on the earth itself this Bondavara misfortune had ruined a
multitude of people.

In the beginning the board of directors, who administered the affairs
of the shareholders, hit upon the idea that with the ready money at
their command they would buy up all the shares in the market, and in
this way serve a double purpose. In the first place, they would secure
for themselves the shares which had been issued at par at a price far
below par, and in the next they would check any further fall.

The board, however, by this manoeuvre only effected a more rapid smash;
the money in the treasury dwindled away until at last for the
necessary expenses there was nothing left.

Prince Waldemar knew how to make use of the daily papers. He was
always ready, and the shares having, through him, fallen thirty per
cent. lower, he was resolved to send them still further down. The time
was at hand when they would stand at _nil_, and then the owner of
these miserable shares would be glad to _offer_ one per cent. to any
one who would take them off his hands.

It was a wicked game to play. Thousands were made beggars. The poorer
people suffered most--those who a short year ago came with their
little savings in their hands, crying to take shares. Poor souls! the
high interest had tempted them to their ruin. Ah, it is an old story
this, that repeats itself with periodic fidelity; the clerk, the old
man, the widow, the old maid, the governess or teacher--these are the
victims of this cruel Juggernaut. The cashier who has gambled with his
master's money fills in the picture. But there are not wanting others
who suffer, but are not reduced altogether to want. Solid tradesmen
are crippled, people who drove their carriages have to walk, lovers
whose wedding-day was fixed have to wait, and sometimes pine away in
single blessedness. Woe! woe! on every side.

But the Bondavara catastrophe had ruined not alone poor and well-to-do
people; it had dragged down in its fall the high and powerful family
of Bondavary, one of the most ancient in Hungary. The Marquis Salista
had learned a severe lesson; he found that you cannot take away the
centrepiece of a building without endangering the whole edifice. The
sequestration of the prince's property had drawn the whole body of
creditors upon him. And so it came to pass that the large property of
a great nobleman, a reigning prince, fell u